Food Encyclopedia

Gillett method

A method by which the heat level of a chile is measured using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This technique directly measures the amount of capsaicin rather than using human sensory methods such as those employed when the scoville scale was originally developed. The Gillett method measures the chile's heat level in ASTA pungency units (named for the American Spice Trade Association). Such units are typically converted to the better-known Scoville scale at about 1 ASTA pungency unit to 15 Scoville heat units.